Copyright notice: This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author’s copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.

Abstract

We introduce a new algorithm to cover an unknown space with a homogeneous team of circular mobile robots. Our approach is based on a single robot coverage algorithm, a boustrophedon approach, which divides the target two-dimensional space into regions called cells, each of which can be covered with simple back and forth motions. Single robot coverage is then achieved by ensuring that the robot visits each cell. The new multi-robot coverage algorithm uses the same planar cell-based approach as the single robot approach, but also prescribes the methods by which multiple robots cover a cell, teams are allocated among cells, and sub-teams of robots share information in a minimalistic manner. The advantage of this method is that planning occurs in a two dimensional configuration space for a team of n robots, bypassing the need to plan in a 2n dimensional configuration space. The approach is semi-decentralized: robot teams cover the space independent of each other, but robots within a team communicate state and share information.